It is better
to not be on
the web than
to be on and
not know whyJohn Sumser

Reality
is more
complex
than
it seems.
John Gall

It's better to
do a few things
really well than
than to do
a lot of things
badly.
If you can't
make the necessary
commitments of
time and energy
to your
electronic
marketing
efforts
scale back
your plan.
John Sumser

Download: Roses in the Thornbush: How Marketing Can Leverage the Value of Recruiting
and How Recruiting Can Leverage the Value of Marketing

Free(July 10, 2001) We certainly have no shortage of email promoting "free" services. We recently indulged in a lengthy conversation with a fellow who was promoting a "free" applicant tracking system. When asked how he intended to pay for long term maintenance, life cycle improvements and customer support, he said "The system is good enough, we don't need to maintain it and we don't want dumb customers". While we're certain that needing customer service isn't an indication of stupidity, we do know that "free" usually means more expensive.

The economics of the job board business are very simple: you buy candidate information at price X and hope to sell it for more than that. When you don't pay for the traffic (buy advertising or delivering more value than a list of jobs), no one comes to the site. Typically, some job sites give away their content for a while to get started with customers. This isn't a free job board but a free trial. Unfortunately, the results from these early stage offerings leave lots of room for improvement.

Here's the latest offering:

Subject: Free career site to pst resumes and search jobs (the typo must be a marketing thing)

Declare your Independence from High-Priced Job Boards and Career Sites!
Start using: http://www.careerdepot.com
Career Depot was established by recruiters who are tired of paying high prices to search for candidates and to post jobs on the Internet.
Career Depot allows Candidates and Hiring Managers a place to meet for FREE!
Employers and Staffing Firms who wish to recruit on CareerDepot.com can take advantage of the following features:
* UNLIMITED FREE JOB POSTING
* UNLIMITED FREE RESUME SEARCHING
Candidates who wish to use CareerDepot.com can take advantage of the following features:
* UNLIMITED FREE RESUME POSTING
* UNLIMITED FREE JOB SEARCHES
Please help make CareerDepot.com the place to go on the web for jobs and
resumes - post your jobs and resumes now!
It's Free! The Revolution has Arrived!

In this case, free means "No Charge To Use the Service". Unfortunately, your time (which is more precious than money) is better spent elsewhere.